Hey all, I’ve been working on a podcast app that utilizes the Mudita Mindful Design (MMD) framework like the Directory App I recently released.
For this thread, I’m mainly looking for feature suggestions. I’ve attached images that show how it currently looks/what screens are available.
The main features I have implemented are:
Search podcast
Follow/unfollow podcast
View podcast details including 25 most recent episodes
podcast details are cached so api hits are limited
Play episodes including a mini player that allows you to navigate the app while you listen
When the app is backgrounded, the app draws a floating button that allows you to re-enter the app from anywhere in the os.
I did this because the Mudita OS launcher does not recognize any other media outside their music app
I wanted a quick way for users to access the app to pause the media or seek forward/back
My current roadmap
Finish implementing MMD components throughout app
Allow downloads of episodes
Cache users current listening position
Locally store listening history
Mark episodes as completed
Show listening progress even if not actively listening so the user can resume an episode
I’d love to hear your feedback and ideas so we can build what the community wants. BUT, we need to make sure we’re keeping “Mindful” in mind. The idea is to provide what’s necessary for a good experience but not drive bad habits of getting lost in the app.
@davidray I was replying to this on Reddit but since you posted here.
First of all great work!
As much as I support using frameworks to keep things uniform, in this case having so many big elements like the large header and the navigation are taking too much space and you can barely fit 3 podcasts/episodes which in large podcasts would require a lot of scrolling.
You can see here my idea on how a podcast app should work in an e-ink phone. I know some of my points are very extreme, but I have tried like 10+ podcast apps and ended up frustrated with them.
I started the app and I use it daily, but it’s not finished yet because it has several bugs and the search part is not finished, and I’m too busy with work currently.
My last point is that, the Kompakt community is very small. If you optimise the app for more phones/resolutions you’d be helping out thousands of other people that also use e-ink phones .
Good luck! And please share the beta when you can, I’d love to test it
Thanks for the input, your approach looks very nice. And to your point, yes, a lot of my current implementation takes a lot of screen real estate. This would be one of my biggest complaints using the current released version of the MMD framework. The bottom navigation bar for instance does not match the actual navigation bar they have in their apps. There is a lot of extra padding they included so the bar is a good 20+px taller than the 1st party apps.
With that being said, I have not really optimized font sizes or padding for the actual device just yet as well as button positioning, etc… The follow/unfollow button for instance should probably live in the top app bar as an icon to follow the framework. I also need to figure out how to make the mini player appear just like the music app does where it’s actually in the navigation bar.
Much to do still but I can probably have a beta out soon. I’ll update as soon as it is.
Thanks again for the input, I’ll try to remedy some of these.
@davidray I saw your most recent update for this via Reddit. Do you think you can add a sleep timer as an option? I work nights and podcast sometimes to unwind, but I like not losing my place if I do actually fall asleep with it playing? This is helpful too for sideloaded audiobooks.
Thanks for the interest in the app. A sleep timer is 100% on my list as well as playback speed. I should have one more update before beta this week to hopefully include at least one of those.
@davidray , I applaud any efforts to create a podcast app that puts e-Ink and usability at the forefront. By way of feature suggestions, mine would be as follows:
I use Pocket Casts on the MK. There are a few key things that any alternative podcast app would need to have to tempt me away:
Skip/forward options – essential to skip ads
Auto-skip intro/outro – also essential to skip ads – customisable duration
Add to playlist/up next
Reorder episodes in a playlist/up next – dragging up / down
Archive / Unarchive episodes – swipe left/right
Episode descriptions – sometimes podcasters add valuable information in the description which they don’t publish elsewhere.
I think that’s it. All combined, that makes it quite a tall order and would, I suspect, take up a lot of your time.
(These are the same suggestions I made in another thread / discussion on this forum. I’m afraid I don’t know how to link to it, so I’ve just pasted them again here.)
Is it possible to get access to the Alpha, my friend? I’m really excited because podcasts are a significant part of my life. There are so many apps out there, but after a few months of using the Kompakt I’m slowly coming to the conclusion that I don’t want to use applications that don’t follow the design language of this device.
So for now I’ve only kept Kindle (because I can’t live without books) and iMessage. I’m really looking forward to your app.
By the way, maybe we could create a thread on the forum where we collect all apps made by enthusiasts. Unfortunately, I only know about InkOS so far.
I’ll be camping this weekend and into early next week but my goal is to get you guys a beta apk before the weekend. I’m currently investigating a downloads issue that I seem to have inadvertently caused. I’ve been using the app pretty often on my phone for the past week and it’s held up well overall. The beta will be pretty raw and we might hit some rate limits on the current version of the api I’m using but we’ll give it a go!
Btw, I also created a directory app that uses the MMD framework if you haven’t seen that one. Link to the post here
Seems like a great list. I’ll be taking a stab at a few of these.
this one is done (and adjustable 5/10/15/30 seconds)
I’ll have to do some digging on this one
Playlist will definitely come v2
Dragging almost seems anti E-ink but I’ll give it a try to see how it feels
Is this something that is common in podcast apps? With my current UI I’m not sure how I could make this make sense.
I actually had a small snippet of the description but found that it cramped the ui. Would you be okay with a button that opened the description in a dialog?
I am by absolutely no means a podcast guy. This was a project I took on because it seems like a lot of people would benefit from it. So, I appreciate the input and will consider all of it.
It’s also worth noting that I will typically choose the “mindful” decision on most of these features. I definitely do not want things to feel half baked for the excuse of “simplicity” and “you shouldn’t be using your phone” like I got when I was using Light OS and their apps but I also want things to feel out of the way and unobtrusive. These apps should do what you need and get out of the way.
this one is done (and adjustable 5/10/15/30 seconds) (PM: Amazing. Thank you.)
I’ll have to do some digging on this one. (PM: Much appreciated.)
Playlist will definitely come v2 (PM: Amazing. Thank you.)
Dragging almost seems anti E-ink but I’ll give it a try to see how it feels. (PM: Au contraire, Pocket Casts uses drag to re-order and it works a dream. Probably more intentional because it’s slower on e-Ink. After all, a swipe left/right is still a finger dragging motion.)
Is this something that is common in podcast apps? With my current UI I’m not sure how I could make this make sense. (PM: Yes, archiving episodes helps you keep track of what you’ve played vs unplayed.)
I actually had a small snippet of the description but found that it cramped the ui. Would you be okay with a button that opened the description in a dialog? (PM: Yes, that works brilliantly. Thank you.)
It sounds encouraging, David. Looking forward to trying it.
